Olympic event where Carrington still has new ground to break
Dame Lisa Carrington was still breaking new ground in 2023 – a dozen years after she first became a world champion kayaker.
New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian is hoping that will continue in 2024, as she heads to her fourth Games in Paris this July and August.
In London in 2012, she won the K1 200m and came seventh in the K2 500m. In Rio in 2016, she went back to back, while finishing third in the K1 500m. Then in Tokyo in 2021, she won the K1 200m, the K1 500m and the K2 500m to boot.
Her six Olympic medals are one more than any Kiwi has won, as are her five gold medals. They sit alongside 15 golds, five silvers and two bronzes won at world championships.
But while Carrington will be looking to win the K1 500m for the second Olympics in a row in August at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, and to defend the K2 title, with Alicia Hoskin now alongside her, instead of Caitlin Regal, there will also be the pursuit of something new.
That’s a medal in the K4 – an event in which she and her team-mates finished fourth in Tokyo, at the end of what was for Carrington a gruelling schedule, also featuring the K1 200m, which is no longer part of the Olympic Programme.
Carrington and Hoskin are backing up in the four-woman boat from three years ago and will be joined by two first-timers – Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan. Together, they won gold at the world championships in Duisburg, Germany, last August, holding off Poland and Spain to claim New Zealand’s first K4 world title.
Carrington was hesitant to single out one of her three events in Paris – echoing the sentiment of coach Gordon Walker that they’re focusing on them as three components of one campaign – but did say “the K4 is really special”.
“Obviously, there's four of us, and I'm finding that the more people you put on the boat, it's more complex, but it's incredibly rewarding. The K2 is awesome with Alicia and the K1 is another awesome event.
“I don't know if one stands out, but I definitely still have a heap to learn, in every boat.”
The K4 has traditionally been dominated by European nations, with Hungary, Belarus and Poland claiming the medals in Tokyo.
While the New Zealand quartet have put themselves among the contenders for Paris, they know they have plenty of work to do.
Carrington will be joined in the K1 500m by Aimee Fisher, setting up the possibility of an all-Kiwi showdown for gold. Fisher will be partnered by Lucy Matehaere in a second K2 boat.
New Zealand’s male canoe sprint team is yet to be confirmed, with the action set to take place from August 6 to 10, in the second week of the Olympics.